The Chrononaut Chronicles: TNA iMPACT! – Thursday, November 9, 2006
– Of course, this is the last latenight show before Impact moves to primetime next week with a two-hour special. Personally, I’m looking forward to the move not just because it should bring TNA at least a few more viewers, but also because it will be a lot easier to get these recaps finished the same night.
– We begin with a video package recapping the Fight For The Right tournament and questioning who will earn the right to challenge NWA World Champion Sting at Genesis before the usual Impact opening.
– Fight For The Right – Semi Final: AJ Styles vs. Robert Roode vs. Ron “The Truth” Killings
Christopher Daniels, the smokin’ hot Ms. Brooks, and Lance Hoyt are at ringside in each man’s corner as Roode starts off by trashtalking both AJ & Truth, so they take turns teeing off on him and AJ uncorks his sweet dropkick. Truth clotheslines Roode over the top rope and Styles goes to dive out, but Roode pulls Traci in front of him so AJ stops himself in midair and lands on the apron before ducking as Killings soars over the top with a beautiful somersault plancha on the former Canadian Enforcer. Styles quickly follows with an Asai moonsault on Killings and rolls him back in for a two-count, but Truth comes back with a heelkick and a wheelbarrow faceplant for two as Roode breaks the pin and we see Jerry Lynn, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, & Chris Sabin watching from the scaffold. Roode ducks a flying forearm off the ropes from Truth and Styles eats it before Roode dumps Truth to the floor and clips AJ’s knee as he goes to work on the leg, trapping the X Division Champion in the old Canadian Maple Leaf complete with roll-through. I wonder if that’s a message to Lance Storm that TNA read his commentary? Truth connects with a dropkick off the top turnbuckle to break the halfcrab and slugs it out with AJ until the Phenomenal One hits him with an enzuigiri and scores with the Pele on Roode. Styles climbs to the top and Ms. Brooks climbs up to grab his leg, but Daniels drags her down and Hoyt deposits her in the front row, where an overzealous “fan” spills his drink on her and hilariously chants “TNA”. She slaps the shit out of him while Roode superplexes Styles off the top and goes out to rescue his Chief Executive Offender from the crowd. Meanwhile in the ring, AJ avoids the Axe Kick and rolls up Truth for the 1-2-3 to advance to the Fight For The Right final against Abyss later. Afterwards, Styles & Daniels celebrate while Sabin doesn’t look impressed. Good exciting opener.
– After the break, Roode chews out Ms. Brooks backstage for costing him a shot at the NWA World Title and demands that she hire someone to handle crowd control, his public relations, and an image consultant, explaining that he wants the fans to love Robert Roode so they spend their money on him because money is the most important thing to him. Roode yells at her to go do her job and throws his water bottle at the wall, adding “another water” to his list of demands. Really good way to establish his new character and I like the dynamic between Roode & Traci if they continue to go this route. Great intense delivery by Roode.
– Shane Douglas calls Brother Ray out to the ring as West & Tenay recall their confrontation during the reverse battle royal two weeks ago. The Franchise claims that Ray disrespected him and Ray admits that maybe he didn’t like what Shane had to say, but he can’t understand why Shane is so pissed at him. Shane explains that his Naturals have earned everything and aren’t living on a “washed-up” legacy from a “washed-up” company, then slaps Ray in the face as the Naturals run in and beat him down. The Franchise punches Ray with a chain as the Naturals prop up a table vertically in the corner and hurl Ray through it to cement their desperately-needed heel turn. Backstage, we see Devon laid out underneath a guardrail as Tenay claims that this is the Naturals’ dirtywork. Good angle to show that TNA has an actual tag team division, with a non-title feud.
– Earlier Today, Konnan interrupted an autograph signing by AMW and distracted them long enough for Homicide & Hernandez to attack. During the savage assault, LAX crush Chris Harris’ arm between the guardrail and the wall before Hernandez launches James Storm into a wall with a sick Border Toss. Ouch.
– “The” Austin Starr vs. Petey Williams vs. Johnny Devine
Kevin Nash joins Tenay & West on commentary and leaves Alex Shelley at ringside to film Starr, who is indeed introduced as “The” Austin Starr. Some good fast-paced action to start as Nash denies that he has latched onto Starr and claims that Starr is the one benefiting from his expertise. Petey hits a nice slingshot chestcracker on Austin for a two-count, but Johnny breaks the pin and snap-suplexes Petey for two as Nash informs the announcers that Shelley & Starr went out for sushi and caught a movie together, so there are no problems between them. They also discuss Devine’s firing from Paparazzi Productions as Petey catches Johnny in the Canadian Legsweep and sets up for the Canadian Destroyer, but Starr stops him with a clothesline and Devine catapults Williams into Starr. Devine lands a sweet moonsault (“Something out of my playbook” says Nash) on Petey for two as Starr makes the save and Devine backslides him for two, but Starr punts Johnny in the head and drills him with the brainbuster. Starr goes to the top turnbuckle and poses for the camera as Shelley stands on the apron to record him, but Petey rams Shelley and the camera into Austin’s groin, knocking them both to the floor while Petey plants Devine with the Canadian Destroyer for the un-deux-trois. Another good three-way with total nonstop action and an added dynamic since Devine is a former member of both Team Canada & Paparazzi Productions.
Afterwards, Nash & Starr blame Shelley for f*cking up, but that is quickly forgotten as LAX come out to the ring with the Uncle Sam dummy. I like how Hernandez wears his tag title belt hanging out of his shirt and Homicide wears his belt backwards, like they’re disrespecting the titles. Konnan notes that Petey is an immigrant just like they are and talks to him about the evils of the white man (funny stuff… I hope this is tongue-in-cheek and Russo doesn’t really think Canadians are a separate race) as he invites Petey to join them next week when they burn the American flag in primetime. That should be interesting.
– Mike Tenay conducts a splitscreen interview with Christian Cage (backstage in the Impact Zone) and Rhino (in a “remote location”) about their Barbed Wire Cage match next week and Christian lists off all the advantages he has over Rhino including more supple skin, better penmanship, nicer hair, and better facial hair, adding that for the complete list they can just ask Rhino’s ex-wife. OOOOOHHH. They could conceivably stretch this feud out if they have Cage reveal he fooled around with the former Mrs. Rhino. Christian cuts a great promo to put himself over as a smart heel and Tenay points out he’ll have the boltcutters, but Rhino promises to shove the boltcutters up Cage’s ass and they talk over each other before Rhino threatens violence next week. Rhino states he’ll kick Cage’s ass right now and leaves his “remote location” while Cage acts cocky, but then looks around nervously for a split-second.
– Don West is in “Genesis Central” to plug his little heart out, hyping the live events this weekend, DVDs, the Primetime Special next week, and of course Genesis on November 19. This is what Don does best, so good move by TNA.
– Backstage, we see James Mitchell handing the mask to Abyss to put on as we go to break.
– A stellar video package features comments from Samoa Joe & Kurt Angle to build up their match as the “Dream Match of the Decade”, showing them as two intense, legitimate fighters who both need to beat the other to prove they are the best in the world. Really awesome stuff to hype the biggest match in TNA history.
– Fight For The Right – Final: Abyss vs. AJ Styles
James Mitchell accompanies Abyss and Christopher Daniels comes out with AJ, but the referee sends them both back to the locker room before the bell rings to avoid any interference like we saw in the Semi-Final. Styles goes for the Monster’s leg immediately, but Abyss just throws him off and manhandles the X Division Champion until AJ counters a back-bodydrop by standing on Abyss’ back and somehow dropping down into a huracanrana on the big man. That was… phenomenal. Styles can’t suplex Abyss, so he takes him down with tilt-a-whirl headscissors and clotheslines him twice in the corner, but on the third try Abyss turns him inside-out with a big boot and wedges a chair in the turnbuckles. AJ fights back and swings a discus clothesline, but Abyss counters by just clubbing AJ with a punch to the head and hoists him up in a powerbomb. In a cool exchange Styles escapes with a sunset flip, but Abyss keeps rolling and catapults Styles into the chair. Jerry Lynn and his X Division proteges are still watching from the scaffold and Chris Sabin is shown stretching and yawning like he’s bored as Abyss avalanches Styles and racks him up for the Shock Treatment, but AJ wriggles out and decks the Monster with a dropkick before pummeling him on the mat. Abyss reverses an Irish-whip and Styles stops just before he crashes into the ref in the corner, but Abyss follows in with an avalanche to squash both AJ and the ref. With the ref down, Christian Cage (who apparently changed clothes since the splitscreen interview) runs in and lays out both Abyss & AJ with a pair of chairshots, explaining on the mic that he is “the only true #1 Contender in TNA”. Meanwhile the ref awakens and, seeing both competitors knocked out but not knowing that Christian interfered, administers the 10-count to declare the result a no-contest. However, the rest of the TNA Referee Brigade rush out to inform the ref of what happened as we go to break.
When we come back, ring announcer Dave Penzer announces that the match will be restarted due to its importance and the bell rings as Styles avoids a charge in the corner by slipping out to the apron and springboards back in with a flying forearm for a near-fall. Seated dropkick earns another near-fall for AJ and Abyss grips him for a chokeslam, but Styles counters in midair with a modified victory roll for yet another close near-fall. Styles looks like he’s going for the springboard-moonsault inverted DDT, but Abyss snatches him off the middle turnbuckle and drops him with the Shock Treatment. Mitchell runs down with the bag of thumbtacks and tries to give them to Abyss, but Daniels sprints out and grabs the bag as he argues with Mitchell on the ramp. The ref gets distracted with Daniels & Mitchell at ringside to eject them again while AJ scores with the Pele and sets up Abyss for the Styles Clash, but Sabin runs in and clocks AJ with a reverse enzuigiri. Abyss quickly plants Styles with the Black Hole Slam for the three-count to win the Fight For The Right tournament and earn the shot at Sting’s NWA World Title at Genesis, as well as the opportunity to be Kurt Angle’s first opponent in TNA next week on the Primetime Special. Afterwards, Sabin shouts at Styles about “respect” and Lynn scolds him on the ramp while Abyss & Mitchell celebrate the victory. The last thing we see is Sting with the NWA Title belt over his shoulder as he observes from the rafters to close the show.
Afterthoughts: A much better and more entertaining program than last week’s with some good in-ring action and great promos. AJ/Abyss always bring the goods when they wrestle each other and told a nice little “power vs. speed” story in the main event before the interference, which was also justified to further the Christian and Sabin storylines. I could see TNA doing a Raven-like angle with Christian interfering in #1 Contender matches until he gets his title shot. The only thing that seemed strange was Rhino not following through on his promise to attack Christian a week early, so I wonder if we might see some “exclusive backstage footage” next week of Rhino jumping Christian (or vice-versa) this week. Overall I have no strong complaints about this week’s show and I’m really looking forward to the loaded Primetime Special next week which is scheduled to feature Angle vs. Abyss, Christian vs. Rhino in the Barbed Wire Cage, and Team 3D vs. Naturals in a Tables match. TNA is about to take a huge step and hopefully can put together a string of strong shows to eventually earn an opportunity to compete with RAW on Monday nights, because I really think that’s the best way for TNA to break into the mainstream and push WWE to improve their product.
